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But the union was unable to provide figures on how many BBC staff joined the walkout and only a dozen strikers manned a picket line outside the Corporation’s Broadcasting House in central London. All had left by 5pm.

Picket: Journalists at BBC Scotland are also on strike over job cuts, disrupting programmes throughout today

Plea: A National Union of Journalists, NUJ, placard taped to a post outside BBC Television Centre in White City, London, but very few people were protesting at its doors

Absent: Presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid were not on the air today after a strike meant BBC Breakfast was cancelled

GOVERNMENT'S EDUCATION STAFF ALSO VOTE FOR STRIKE

Workers at the Department for Education have voted to go on strike in a row over spending cuts and job losses.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services union backed walkouts by almost 2-1, and other forms of industrial action by nearly 9-1.

The union said it believed Education Secretary Michael Gove is using the department as an ideological test-bed for wider civil service cuts.

Around 1,000 jobs are under threat because of spending cuts, said the union.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: 'These cuts are purely political and would not only mean misery for 1,000 of Mr Gove’s own staff but also put at risk some vital public services, such as ensuring children are safe at school and supporting special educational needs.'

The union said turnout in the ballot was 37.5 per cent.

Officials accused the department of using management consultants to draw up plans to axe more than a quarter of its workforce.

A Department for Education spokesman said: 'We want this country to have the best education system and the best children's services. To achieve this we must create a department that delivers an excellent service to the public, while ensuring value for money for the taxpayer.'

For most of the afternoon they were outnumbered by about 40 Palestinian solidarity campaigners who hijacked their protest.

At the BBC’s new MediaCityUK headquarters in Salford, only ten union officials manned picket lines outside three buildings yesterday afternoon.

One journalist on The World At One said: ‘It is an over-the-top reaction for a relatively small number of job losses.

‘But there are so many die-hard Lefties in senior positions at the BBC you can’t afford to get on the wrong side of.

‘So while we might not actually want to strike, some of us are scared to cross the picket line in case we damage our careers.’

According to insiders, the Today programme’s scheduled presenters James Naughtie and Evan Davis did not threaten to strike and were unhappy with the NUJ’s action.

But editor Ceri Thomas decided over the weekend to cancel the show because he felt he could not guarantee enough staff would turn up to work.

A senior source said: ‘The presenters didn’t have to pin their colours on the mast because the decision had already been taken.

‘The editor simply took the view that it is sometimes better that there’s no programme than one that has been cobbled together.

There’s a great deal of unhappiness about the strike. Many, many staff don’t feel it should be dealt with in this way.

‘But it is difficult for people to take a stand against their colleagues and actively break the strike.

However, if the NUJ try another one they may well find they are unable to gather enough support to pull it off.’

One senior news presenter at the BBC said of the decision not to air key news programmes: ‘There is no real leadership in BBC news any more.

'People lost their nerve once the strikes were announced. The result has been a shambles.’

Strike: A man enters Broadcasting House in London as BBC journalists started a 24-hour strike today over compulsory redundancies

Casualty: The industrial action meant that the Today Programme, presented by James Naughtie among others, was off the air

David Cameron criticised BBC staff
for striking, pointing out that many of the ‘well-funded’ Corporation’s
employees earn more than his £142,000 salary.

The BBC said it was ‘disappointed’
with the industrial action, adding that it would not alter the fact that
it has to make ‘significant’ savings.

The Corporation, which is cutting
around 2,000 jobs under its Delivering Quality First programme, said 554
employees had left as a result of voluntary redundancy, 186 had been
redeployed and there have been 153 compulsory redundancies.

The NUJ said 4,000 BBC employees are members but could not say how many joined the strike. BBC News employs 8,000 people.

NUJ national executive member Donnacha
DeLong said the BBC’s policy was ‘ridiculous’ because there were many
internal vacancies that could be filled by redeploying staff facing
redundancy.